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Listening and Speaking in Class
by Teacher Regina Ruey
We all know that when we learn a language, we learn to listen and
speak first, and to read and write later. But Asian schools have
not put emphasis on listening and speaking. That is the reason why
English learning has not been successful in Asia. It is extremely
important for non-native students to listen carefully in class.
Here is a method that works well in my class and I would like to
share it with everyone else. All the students have learned that
they should speak English chunk by chunk, and in each chunk, there
should be at least one stressed syllable to make the meaning clear.
But when they speak, they tend to forget.
What I do is have students listen carefully for each other’s mistakes.
They have to raise their hands whenever they hear a mistake, whether
it’s a grammatical mistake, a mispronounced word, a wrongly- stressed
word, or a misplaced falling tone etc. Otherwise, they stand up
until they spot another mistake and correct it. So throughout the
class, everyone listens so carefully that they become stricter and
pickier than the teacher. They would say, ”Speak louder. I can’t
hear you,” to the quiet students, or “He should say abc with a rising
tone instead of a falling tone because the sentence has not come
to an end.” As they become picky with others, they are more aware
of how sounds of the language work. The possibility of making the
same mistakes is drastically reduced. Their speaking ability is
improved as well as their listening ability. The whole class has
fun finding each other’s faults. They become more attentive and
concentrated. They even move closer to the student who is answering
the question so that they can hear it clearly. It seems competitive
in a way. But in another way, we all feel the warmth of helping
each other, and working as a team to make our English better.
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